Aural recognition systems have been developed to interact with electronic devices such as personal computers, automobile control systems, and home automation systems. In general, such systems allow users to issue commands to electronic devices by speaking commands comprised of words, phrases, or sentences, as a means of conveying a desired action to be taken by the electronic devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,520 which is hereby incorporated by reference discloses a voice activated control system that allows a driver of a car to control a variety of device functions by issuing verbal commands. For example, a user may control the windows, air conditioner, radio, or telephone by issuing a variety of verbal commands based upon a predefined vocabulary of words and phrases.
Because multiple devices are controlled by the verbal commands, the user must verbally convey both an indication of which device he or she desires to control and an indication of what action he wishes that device to take. This tends to be cumbersome, time-consuming, error prone, and often requires the user to remember a large vocabulary of very specific words, phrases, or names, to clearly distinguish between the multiple devices being controlled by the user. Unfortunately such a solution is cumbersome for the user, requiring lengthy and awkward command sequences that must be memorized and must be delivered correctly.
Another problem with the relevant art is distinguishing between intended commands and normal conversations between people. For example, two people may be having a conversation in a house having a voice activated control system as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,854 and hereby incorporated by reference; one person may say to the other person, “Do you think we should turn the radio on or listen to a CD?” The voice activated control system may detect the word combination “radio on” and respond by activating the radio. A number of methods have been attempted in the relevant art to help distinguish between actually intended verbal commands and other verbal utterances, many of which are processing intensive for the control system and requires the voice control system to monitor the context of all verbal utterances. Other methods increase the requirements of the user, for example, requiring the user to issue an identifying word or phrase such as “CONTROLLER—RADIO ON,” as a means of informing the system that the words that follow the identifying word “CONTROLLER” will be a formal command. Again, such requirements for identifying words or phrases create an interface for the user that is cumbersome, time-consuming, error prone and requires that the user remember a large vocabulary.
What is needed is a more natural and intuitive way for a user to issue a verbal command to one of a plurality of electronic devices without having to verbally specify exactly which of the plurality of electronic devices the user is referring to. What is also needed is an improved way of distinguishing between intended verbal commands and other verbal utterances.